Aussie begs for release by Taliban

THE Taliban has released a video of an Australian hostage pleading with the US to negotiate with his captors and free him. Timothy Weekes, an Australian teacher at the American University in Kabul, Afghanistan, and American colleague Kevin King were seized in August. Mr Weekes says unless a prisoner exchange happens, he will be killed. "I don't want to die here, not alone, not here ... please, please help me secure my release,” he said through tears in the video recorded on New Year's Day. US special forces failed in a secret raid in August to rescue the men.